A Scientist Who Helped Home-Makers

“A half pound of saleratus, please,” demanded a customer. “I never can cook with soda.” “Give me baking soda,” another woman insisted. “I cannot use saleratus.”

The bright-eyed young girl behind the counter of the country store supplied them both from the same package, rather amused that they should not know that baking soda and saleratus are as alike as two peas in a pod.

“I should like to know more about the nature of the things that I am selling,” thought Ellen Swallow. Little did she dream that her future years were to be spent in making life easier and happier for women by enabling them to learn about these very things.

On December 3, 1842, Ellen Henrietta Swallow was born near the village of Dunstable, Massachusetts. She was an out-of-door girl and loved to follow her father and uncles about the farm. She drove the cows to pasture, rode horseback, and often pitched hay. She made a little flower garden too, and tended it carefully.

Little Ellen was also quick and skillful at indoor tasks. Her mother, who had a deft hand at any kind of housework, taught her to sew and cook. Ellen’s doll’s bed had sheets and pillowcases daintily hemstitched by her own hand. At the country fair, one year, two prizes fell to thirteen-year-old Ellen Swallow, one for a beautifully embroidered handkerchief and another for the best loaf of bread.

Ellen’s mother and father were well educated, and had been teachers. They taught Ellen at home until she was ready for the academy.

Mr. Swallow gave up farming and opened a country store in the village of Westford, Massachusetts, so that Ellen could attend the academy there. Ellen enjoyed her studies and mastered them thoroughly. She was such a fine Latin student that later she was able to earn money for her college expenses by teaching that subject.

Ellen Swallow was as active and energetic out of school as in school. She was a capable little business woman. She waited on customers in her father’s store and kept his accounts. She even made trips to Boston to buy goods for the store. This early training was very helpful when in later years she had to handle large sums of money for many philanthropic and educational purposes.

At home Ellen was often the housekeeper for weeks at a time, during her frail mother’s illnesses. She not only cooked and washed, but she cleaned house, papered rooms, and laid carpets, as well. What she learned of managing a house in her school-girl days was a very valuable addition to what science taught her later about good home-making. Ellen Swallow was very quick and capable. In addition to her school, home, and store duties, she had time for reading and for working in her precious flower garden.

After her academy days Ellen Swallow’s hours were filled by teaching a country school, helping in the store and at home, and caring for sick friends and neighbors; but she was not satisfied. She felt a great longing to learn and to do more.

There was no college in New England at that time which admitted women. Ellen Swallow therefore decided to enter Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, which had only recently been founded.

College days were very happy ones for this active-minded young woman. She wrote home to her mother glowing accounts of her new life and told her all about her school work and the books that she was reading. Science was her favorite study. One of her teachers was Maria Mitchell, who took a great interest in the young girl.

After graduating from Vassar College, Ellen Swallow was eager to go on with the study of chemistry that she had begun there. After some difficulty she gained admittance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as its first woman student. In fact, she was the first woman to enter any strictly scientific school in the United States. One of the teachers thought that this young woman looked rather frail to be taking such difficult work. The President answered, “Did you notice her eyes? They are steadfast and they are courageous. She will not fail.”

Not only did she not fail in her studies, but she also supported herself. She did tutoring, took charge of an office for a friend, and temporarily ran the boarding house where she lived.

It was feared about this time that the water near many towns and cities in Massachusetts was becoming unfit for drinking. The newly organized State Board of Health decided to have samples of the water examined to see whether it contained impurities.

Miss Swallow had proved herself to be so accurate and dependable that the chemist chosen to analyze the water handed over most of the work to her. Often she had to work far into the night when many samples came in at a time. She analyzed forty thousand samples of water. This careful work meant the prevention of much disease. For ten years she was assistant chemist for the State Board of Health, and then chemist for ten years.

When Ellen Swallow was married to Professor Robert Hallowell Richards, head of the department of mining engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she did not give up her public work. Yet she maintained a real home in which she carried out her ideas about building and furnishing, cleanliness and fresh air, and labor-saving devices. Many guests were welcomed to this busy woman’s home and all found it a place of restfulness and peace.

Mrs. Richards’ great desire was that girls should have the same opportunity to receive a scientific training as had boys. Largely through her efforts a Woman’s Laboratory was opened in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This Laboratory was established for the purpose of giving scientific training to women.

Mrs. Richards gave generously to the Laboratory, teaching without salary, and contributing to its support as well. Soon after women were admitted to the Institute on the same footing as men, Mrs. Richards was made Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry in the Institute, a position which she held for the rest of her life.

Mrs. Richards might have spent her time in scientific research. However, she preferred instead to put her knowledge of science to practical use. She tested wall papers and fabrics to see if they contained arsenic, and staple groceries to detect impurities. She studied oils to discover how the danger from explosives could be lessened.

Mrs. Richards wrote many helpful books about home-making. She organized a society of people interested in promoting right living in the home, the school, and the community. The name of this organization is American Home Economics Association. Because of her influence home economics is now taught in schools throughout the land.

To Ellen H. Richards, sanitary chemist, the facts of science were never just facts, but the means of making people healthier and happier.